Stranger

1. This term was applied to any sojourning among the Israelites, who were not descendants of Israel. The law gave injunctions against the oppression of such (Num. 15:14-30).

2. Gentiles are also called “strangers” from the covenants of promise (Eph. 2:12), showing that the covenants made with Israel did in no wise embrace the Gentiles, though God’s grace at all times extended to them.

3. Those called strangers in 1 Peter 1:1 were Jews away from their own land: sojourners of the dispersion.

4. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament saints were and are strangers upon earth. David said, “I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were” (Psa. 39:12). They “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Heb. 11:13). The same is true of the saints now (1 Pet. 2:11). Their citizenship is in heaven, and this earth is no longer their home or their rest.